Hawkesbury Jets soar in 2024
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with Matt “ Duck Man ” Austin
The Jets had a tough year in 2023 . They did have three wins in Div 1 and you could see they were turning the corner . This year was always going to be different year , you could feel the vibe in the air . The team had just been graded in 4th and 5th division for 2024 and PK was busy assembling a squad of very hard running , physically imposing very fit players with a high work ethic to help the club recapture their form from the glory days from 2006 in their last grand final appearance .
PK sat in the studio opposite me at Pulse FM early in the new season and I could feel the buzz with the promising
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Hawkesbury Jets Grand Final 2024 . |
results that had come early in the year . This saw the club field two sides with good numbers , and a highly competitive 4th division A grade Jets team that shot out to the lead in the competition .
The Jets had some smashing wins opening the campaign with an 11.15.81 to 1.3.9 win over Camden Cats . They continued that solid form with a big win over local rivals Western Magic 12.6.78 to 5.8.38 at Blacktown . The Jets twice put 100 points on Wollondilly Knights with a round 4 shellacking 18.9.117 to 3.3.21 and put a century on them in round 9 as well winning 18.7.115 to 5.4.34 .
The club put two big scores on Manly throughout the year too and knocked up another century against Camden at Bensons Lane in Round 13 winning 18.19.127 to 3.2.20 . Overall , the Jets only dropped 1 game in the regular season going down to North Shore Bombers 9.9.63 to 4.4.28 . In the first week of the finals , they went down to St George who they beat twice through the season 7.13.55 to 7.4.46 .
It was a tough loss
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for the Jets at Kanebridge Oval at Rouse Hill and if they had a strong 4th quarter , they may have been the first team into the grand final . The following week they had to work really hard against the North Shore Bombers and picked up the win 5.10.40 to 5.6.36 to advance to the grand final at Blacktown International Sports Centre against St George .
And grand final day at Blacktown was a huge occasion ; it had been several years since the Jets had made it to the big dance and they had a big turnout , more than 500 .
St George had a few hardened fans on the hill near the scoreboard and the rest in the opposite end of the grandstand . This was the first Sydney senior club AFL game I ’ ve been to in over 20 years .
I ’ ve been to well over 1,000 football games in my life but the atmosphere and buzz in the crowd was massive , everyone that was anyone was at the match watching the Jets . They took it all the way in the big dance too after being down in the first quarter 2.2.14 to 0.1.1 . A spirited second quarter fight back saw the Jets comeback and reduce the gap to 2 in the main break 4.3.27 to 4.1.25 . Going into halftime the Jets had all the momentum .
The 3rd quarter St George streaked ahead to extend the lead to 8 points before the Jets snatched a nailbiter on
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Jack Burns Shipley Medal Winner 2024 . Credit : Paul Martinoli .
the bell in the end of the 4th quarter to level it up 6.5.41 and head into extra time . This was edge of the seat stuff but unfortunately the Jets couldn ’ t get the win they were after going down 7.5.47 to 6.7.43 after extra time .
The players were outstanding for the club and Jack Burns won the 2024 Best and Fairest award after a stellar season which also saw him pick up the leading goalkicker award .
Get your tickets and get onboard the Hawkesbury jets for 2025 !
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Slot car racing , fun for the whole family
with Matt “ Duck Man ” Austin
I don ’ t know if it ’ s an Aussie or just a rev head thing , but many get a real kick out of motor racing . You may feel the need to get onto a track of any sort and absolutely tear it up like your F1 heroes , such as Oscar Piastri , Mark Webber , Daniel Ricciardo , even Michael Schumacher . Or imagine you ’ re a V8 super car racing driver like your heroes Dick Johnson , Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife .
Have you heard of slot car racing though ? Slot car racing was massive when I was a teenager with brown hair and potential ( both have well and truly disappeared long ago in my case ) in the early 1990 !! Slot car racing was huge in the US back in the 60s . A lot of hobbyists and enthusiasts built high detailed scaled racing tracks and sales reached $ 500 million per year in slot cars , tracks and equipment with around 3000 tracks across the US .
The number of people participating in racing in the 1970s dropped off with amateurs feeling squeezed out of events and Radio Control cars were the next thing .
By the time I got my first taste of slot cars and racing in high school , that was
Slot cars all spun off the track in the same corner
it for me . I was hooked . In Australia there were tracks all over the place . There was a big track at Hornsby , one in Penrith , a new track in Narellan , Campbelltown , Parramatta , Liverpool , the Central Coast and Dubbo .
Even South Windsor had a track for a while down off Drummond Street near the old indoor cricket centre . It was a lot of fun and highly competitive . People spent hundreds and even potentially thousands of dollars on their cars , hand controls , spare parts , accessories to run reverse polarity through your hand control to increase the braking of the car , magnets , body kits and everything you could imagine .
I took my grandkids for a spin in the holidays to the slot car track at Penrith down at Altair Pl in Jamisontown , and the boys loved it . They didn ’ t know exactly what they were going to be doing before we got there but when they got their angle womp cars and hand controls and put the cars onto the track , their competitive nature and inner rev head came out .
They loved it , and like them , there were loads of kids trying out slot car racing for the first time and others with their own controllers and cars who knew what they were doing .
There are angle womps , standard flexi cars ( my choice of race car ) drag cars Group F winged cars with ultra lightweight chassis and everything . The world of fast slot cars has changed these days with Group F winged cars tearing it up around the 165- foot track in two seconds .
Don ’ t blink because you ’ ll miss it and potentially launch your car into a wall . The highend cars are about $ 350 each these days and you can spend a lot of money building your high-performance race car .
With my Super 16D Flexi Car ( it ’ s a 1993 relic now ) I can still push it around the track in a solid low six seconds per lap which is moving and takes a high degree of concentration . The kids at the track didn ’ t care for my 35 odd years of experience and took great delight in beating me and watching their cars slam
Duck Man showing the kids how to race .
into mine anytime I came off the track !
It was like reliving my glory days ; winning again , even though most of the people I was racing were on school holidays and didn ’ t even know who Dick Johnson was . It is truly a great family day out and you can hire cars and track time for fun or buy a car and race with the big boys .
40 ISSUE 174 // NOVEMBER 2024 theindependentmagazine . com . au THE HAWKESBURY INDEPENDENT